A big tech company is under fire after it reportedly scrapped search results for the would-be assassination of former President Donald Trump, resulting in the Senate launching an investigation into the matter.
Google reportedly failed to populate desired search results when users tried searching for the July 13 failed assassination attempt and instead found recommended search results for other high-profile figures who faced similar attacks.
The failed assassination of Ronald Reagan and former President Gerald Ford. The assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and the shooting of Bob Marley can all be found on the website. However, no search results of the most recent attempted assassination involving Trump could not be populated.
The former president's son, Donald Trump Jr., has accused Google of suppressing search results for his father’s attempted assassination and interfering with the 2024 election.
Big Tech is trying to interfere in the election AGAIN to help Kamala Harris. We all know this is intentional election interference from Google. Truly despicable. https://t.co/gWDbFGaHI7
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) July 28, 2024
Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) promised to make an “official inquiry” into Google, questioning the motives behind the move.
Why is @Google suppressing the search about the Trump assassination attempt? These are all screenshots from this morning. Has there been a dramatic increase in Truman biographers in the last two weeks?
— Dr. Roger Marshall (@RogerMarshallMD) July 28, 2024
I’ll be making an official inquiry into @google this week - I look forward… pic.twitter.com/GD5SOvvcdX
In addition, Republican Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) did his own research and verified that the rumors were true.
Can verify. @libsoftiktok @Google https://t.co/Qi5EgzPnVK pic.twitter.com/jmEL5iqZld
— Chip Roy (@chiproytx) July 28, 2024
The website’s autocomplete feature also did not populate Trump’s name when “assassins attempt on” was typed into the search bar.
A Google spokesperson said that no “manual action was taken on these predictions” and that its website uses “protections” against Autocomplete predictions “associated with political violence.”
“We’re working on improvements to ensure our systems are more up to date. Of course, Autocomplete is just a tool to help people save time, and they can still search for anything they want to. Following this terrible act, people turned to Google to find high-quality information—we connected them with helpful results and will continue to do so,” the spokesperson said.